Sony has revealed that it expects some PSN services to be back online by May 3rd.
In a post on the official US PlayStation Blog, published yesterday, Senior Communications Director Patrick Seybold explained that some services could be back online in less than a week.
“Our employees have been working day and night to restore operations as quickly as possible, and we expect to have some services up and running within a week from yesterday. However, we want to be very clear that we will only restore operations when we are confident that the network is secure. “
Sony is currently in the process of moving the PSN network infrastructure and data center to a new, more secure location, and claims to be “initiating several measures that will significantly enhance all aspects of PlayStation Network’s security.” A new system software update will require all users to change their password once PSN is restored.
Seybold explained that although personal data had been protected by the old security system, not all was actually encrypted.
“All of the data was protected, and access was restricted both physically and through the perimeter and security of the network. The entire credit card table was encrypted and we have no evidence that credit card data was taken. The personal data table, which is a separate data set, was not encrypted, but was, of course, behind a very sophisticated security system that was breached in a malicious attack.”
Although Sony’s PSN Terms & Conditions “exclude all liability for loss of data or unauthorised access to your data”, it might be subject to punitive measures from the Information Commisssioners Office (ICO); if personal user data is found to have been stored in the UK, and Sony is found to be in breach of the Data Protection Act, the company could potentially face a fine.
"If we found a breach, one of the actions we could take would be to issue an undertaking, which is an agreement between the ICO and the company that if they are handling personal information they have to bring about set improvements in order for them to be compliant with the act," an ICO representative told Edge.
"For serious breaches of the act, we can issue a monetary penalty up to £500,000."
Things could get even more serious for Sony if any of the data ultimately gets misused for nefarious purposes - it could get sued. According to CNET, the first class action lawsuit has already been filed by a US legal firm on behalf of a disgruntled customer.
More as we get it...